I don’t listen to much radio. Sure, if I’m in the car I’ll flip on (or flip off) Bob and Tom. Once in a while I’ll even turn on the radio on the way home to catch some updated scores from a game. But I simply cannot imagine listening to an entire sporting event on the radio. It just doesn’t fit with the way I process information.
So I’m amazed when I find out that satellite radio company Sirius pays (or will pay, perhaps) the NFL hundreds of millions of dollars for broadcast rights to the games. I can almost – almost – understand the packages on satellite TV for all the games. But radio? Are people going to fire up their radio to listen to a game, every week? Much less a bunch of games? I don’t get it.
I get it even less when I read about Sirius planning to take NASCAR away from competitor XM. Huh? You want to listen to a race? We’re talking about racing here. I don’t get it when the races are live, a few feet away from my face (and yes, I’ve been to both NASCAR and Indycar races). I can’t watch on TV either.
But I want to hear the race? Geez. I can see it now: “Ooo – was that Gordon? I dunno, I think it was Stewart. He’ll get that pretty-boy now!” Yeah. NASCAR fans are the types that go for satellite radio. Like it won’t interfere with their scanners.
On a somewhat related note, I heard a Hooters ad today with Dick Vitale, pimping the chain’s focus on fishing tournaments. This may be a local ad to Charlotte, what with Dickie V. in it. But really – does anyone go to Hooters for the wings? Heck no. So they’re trying to sell me on going to watch fishing on television? Yeah, that’ll happen.